And here's something
for fans of British jazz... Michael Gibbs is not a familiar name among
casual jazz listeners but for serious fans, the Rhodesia-born (now Zimbabwe)
composer, conductor, arranger and producer as well as a trombonist and
keyboardist is known for his collaborations with Gary Burton, his student,
and for his ability to utilize rock elements in orchestral jazz. As the
wikipedia notes, Gibbs also taught at Berklee for much of the 1970s.

First of all, a word
of thanks to 6135terry for sharing the Michael Gibbs tracks on the internet.

But there is some
uncertainty about the date of this concert. 6135terry gave the broadcast
date as February 23, 1969. Another fan, notreally, cited the performance
date as April 11, 1969 and the broadcast date as April 30, 1969 (BBC Radio
3).

6135terry commented:
"This is very likely the earliest Mike Gibbs broadcast, predating by many
months his first recordings under his own name. The band is much smaller
and the performances more intimate than on that first album, Michael Gibbs,
and the prominence of the late Mike Osborne is a nice surprise.

"The sound has occasional
distortion and a little static and varies between almost an A- and almost
B+. The music more than compensates for those flaws, however, and for
fans of Gibbs, British jazz of that era (and Jack Bruce completists) it's
another must-have."

Meanwhile, notreally
posted this on his site (www.angelfire.com/planet/galatabridge):

Steve Voce [a
high profile jazz journalist and former broadcaster in the UK], in Jazz
Journal 22/5 (May 1969) wrote: "Gibbs band was obviously going to
be a good one, as a glance at the line-up indicated. But we had already
been fired by some telephone conversations we had had with Mike during
the previous couple of weeks. He is quite single-minded in his intensity
over music, and such enthusiasm as he showed is inevitably both infectious
and awe-inspiring.

Appropriately
the evening began with Sweet Rain, featuring John Surman in a muscular
and yet delicate reading of this lovely ballad. Surmans command
of the soprano is as complete as his mastery of the baritone, and his
pithy opening statement was backed by Phillip Lees delicately-chorded
guitar and John Marshalls drums. As Surman reached the end of his
solo the orchestra came in and right away set the tone of the evening
in a beautifully-orchestrated passage. Mike Osborne, an altoist who improves
with every hearing, came next, backed strongly by Jack Bruces bass-guitar.
Bruce was most impressive throughout this concert, although there is something
dogmatic about the electric bass which seems to impair its flexibility.
His performance on the legitimate bass on the NJOs LP was, from
my point of view, far more imposing.

Alan Skidmore
came next, with his tenor skirting confidently and economically in a solo
which, like most of his work that evening, had the aura of early Coltrane,
while somehow remaining independent of any substantial influence.

The next piece,
Family Joy, Oh Boy, was a simple theme which rocketed along with great
drive, and provided a great leaping-pad for Bruces guitar. After
the orchestra had stated the theme, it was repeated in fairly deadpan
fashion by Frank Ricottis vibes and then given over to a torrential
solo by Bruce, which would have been quite impossible on the orthodox
bass.

Fly Time Fly was
written by Gibbs in 1961 while he was at Berklee with Gary Burton, and
it had a melodic sweetness which much reflected Burtons thinking.
Two other pieces written for Burton, Feeling And Things and June 15th
1967 also made their appearance, but the high spot of the concert were
the two pieces which Gibbs tells me were inspired by the French composer
Messiaen, Liturgy and And On The Third Day, the latter in particular a
most substantial work. Mike was at great pains to emphasise that he in
no way attempted to reflect the religious inspiration of Messiaen. It
might not have been religious, but the performance of And On The Third
Day was certainly inspired, and made one hope that Verve will now go chasing
after the Gibbs orchestra to catalogue alongside the New Jazz Orchestra."

As interneter bohr99
commented: "Certainly the best British reeds section ever put together..."
And it is an entertaining and spirited performance all the same.

+ + + + +

Update From notreally

After further research, 6135terry and I concluded that the February broadcast
date of this concert was accurate, and that the April dates I had suggested
were in fact those of a second Gibbs performance at Lancaster, with a
similar band which included Kenny Wheeler. A recording of that broadcast
has yet to surface...

+ + + + +

Click
on the highlighted tracks to download the MP3s (these are high quality,
stereo MP3s - sample rate of 192 kibit/s). As far as we can ascertain,
this recording has never been officially released.